Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival Programs
The two-week Summer Festival concert series brings guest artists of national reputation to perform to sell-out audiences. Artistic Director Aloysia Friedmann and Artistic Advisor Jon Kimura Parker are core ensemble members.
IM: In Music education for Orcas Island preschools, k-12 students and community musicians. Musicians-in-Residence provide teacher training, Master Classes, in-class music education and technique coaching.
Music Lovers' Seminars provide in-depth perspective of composer's life and times. These lectures are lead by a noted regional music historian and conductor. They are tied to the repertoire of each Summer Festival concert series.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
2004 CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventuresome Programming. 2008 CMA Acclaim Award winner recognizing value of the Festival's involvement in the life of the community. 2008 Award of Excellence from the International of the Visual Arts for production of "The First 10 Years" - a DVD/CD review of the Festival's history and successes.
We are so fortunate to have loyal and generous individual donors who support the Festival's annual music and education offerings through annual gifts and sponsorships. Our growing concern, however, is that year-to-year funding is a tenuous position exposing the Chamber Music Festival to the periodic changes in donor or grant funding patterns. Further there is limited ability to respond to increased needs, program growth, or unique opportunities outside the basic budget. Endowment and legacy gifts are clearly important in order to establish a funding base that has depth and versatility.